1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to soaker hoses and more particularly pertains to a new soaker hose with scalable permeable surface area and method for selecting and controlling which areas to be watered.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of soaker hoses is known in the prior art. More specifically, soaker hoses heretofore devised and utilized are known to consist basically of familiar, expected and obvious structural configurations, notwithstanding the myriad of designs encompassed by the crowded prior art which have been developed for the fulfillment of countless objectives and requirements.
The prior art includes a flexible irrigation pipe including porous and non-porous segments combined together to avoid unnecessary water loss and improve water distribution along the porous segments of the irrigation pipe. Another prior art includes an irrigation assembly that comprises a soaker hose having a liquid permitting region and a liquid barrier, which preferably is a tube that is disposed concentrically about a portion of said liquid permitting region and is axially movable relative thereto. The tube is water-impermeable such that water flowing through the soaker hose is not permitted to exit the hose along the axial region of the liquid permitting portion that is covered by the tube. Also another prior art includes a porous pipe having a porosity which varies continuously and controllably with length is produced by extruding a mixture of particles of pre-vulcanized elastomer such as reclaimed crumb rubber and a thermoplastic binder such as polyethylene with all parameters controlled except for die temperature of pull-off rate. By gradually varying temperature or pull-off rate during extrusion, the porosity of the pipe gradually changes. The leak rate can be controlled in a manner to produce a length of porous pipe in which the leak rate is constant as the pressure drops over the length of the pipe. While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, the aforementioned patents do not disclose a new soaker hose with scalable permeable surface area and method.